Responding to Events

• Event handling in React is similar to handling DOM events
• Handler functions can be passed as Props
• Event names are camelCased i.e. onClick, onSubmit, onHover

<!-- HTML Event Handler -->
<button onclick="handleData()">
  Submit Data
</button>

/* React Event Handler */
<button onClick={handleData}>
  Submit Data
</button>

Preventing Default Behavior

• Calling event.preventDefault() must be done in the handler

function Link () {
  function handleClick(event) {
    event.preventDefault();
    doSomethingWithTarget(event);
  }

  return (
    <a href="#" onClick={handleClick}>
      Click Me React
    </a>
  );
}

React Events are SyntheticEvents

• Events are not real DOM events
• They are captured by React and replaced with SyntheticEvent
• SyntheticEvents behave the same accross all Browsers, unlike DOM Events

Events are Nullified after Handling

• After the event handler function is called the event is set to Null
• This is because SyntheticEvents are reused for other Events
• Do not handle events using Async functions, unless calling event.persist() first

Usual Behavior

function onClick(event) {
  console.log(event); // => nullified object.
  console.log(event.type); // => "click"
  const eventType = event.type; // => "click"

  setTimeout(function() {
    console.log(event.type); // => null
    console.log(eventType); // => "click"
  }, 0);

  // Won't work.
  // this.state.clickEvent will only contain null values.
  this.setState({clickEvent: event});

  // You can still export event properties.
  this.setState({eventType: event.type});
}

More on SyntheticEvents

Binding Event Handlers

• JavaScript classes do not by default bind the this in ES6 Classes
• Binding is a normal JavaScript behavior and is very confusing
• Either use bind in the constructor, or use an ES6 Arrow Function

class Toggle extends React.Component {
  constructor (props) {
    super(props);
    this.state = { isToggleOn: true };

    // Binding is necessary to make `this` work in the callback
    this.handleClick = this.handleClick.bind(this);
  }

  handleClick() {
    this.setState(prevState => ({
      isToggleOn: !prevState.isToggleOn
    }));
  }

  render() {
    return (
      <button onClick={this.handleClick}>
        {this.state.isToggleOn ? true : false}
      </button>
    );
  }
}

ReactDOM.render(
  <Toggle />,
  document.getElementById('root')
);

More about Binding Functions

Binding Event Handlers - Arrow Functions

• Class constructor with this.function = this.function.bind(this) are verbose
• Rewrite the Class property as an arrow function as below
• Only availble when transformed via Babel using create-react-app or other

class LoggingButton extends React.Component {
  // This syntax ensures `this` is bound within handleClick.
  // Warning: this is *experimental* syntax.
  constructor (props) {
    super(props)
    this.state = { isToggleOn: true }
  }

  handleClick = () => {
    this.setState(prevState => ({
      isToggleOn: !prevState.isToggleOn
    }));
  }

  render() {
    return (
      <button onClick={this.handleClick}>
        {this.state.isToggleOn ? true : false}
      </button>
    );
  }
}

Arrow Functions as Class Properties